Demand justice for Wendy!

Wendy Sarai Palacios, an immigrant from El Salvador, made a deal with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). If she agreed to testify against the predatory smuggler who brought her into the country and then tried to rape her while she was four months pregnant, she’d get a pathway to citizenship —a so-called U visa for crime victims who cooperate in criminal investigations. Fearfully she agreed because she so desperately wanted a new life in America for her daughter.

But Wendy, who is currently living with family in Memphis, says federal officials reneged on their promise and she now faces deportation.

Wendy left her home after she became pregnant. She said she couldn’t raise a child as a single mother in one of the countries with the highest murder rates in the world. Just in 2014, more than 3,912 people, including dozens of police officers and soldiers, were killed in the nation that’s roughly the size of Massachusetts.

Wendy was afraid to face the alleged smuggler, Jose Manuel Flores-Patiño but she bravely confronted and helped convict him. Flores-Patiño is now serving a six-year sentence in federal prison. Following her testimony, she moved to Memphis to be near family and began the process to stay legally as was promised. But the CBP, as well as other federal and state agencies involved with the case have not signed the required certification form for her U visa application.

After years and numerous attempts by her attorney, Kerry Krauch at the Community Legal Center (CLC), to have the record certified, Wendy has now received notice deportation proceedings will resume within a few months.

We at the CLC believe Wendy is being denied justice and would like your help. Please consider signing the petition below, which will be shared with local and federal officials, to have the U.S. Justice Department uphold its end of the bargain and certify Wendy’s papers so she can obtain her visa as promised. Then please help spread the word. Help us help Wendy and her daughter!